No one will be quicker to tell you how much they love Widow’s Bay or Hacks than the people who are working on their rival Emmy campaigns.
Sometimes I even believe them.
Many of the people behind this year’s Emmy-nominated shows spent the past week hitting the streets in Los Angeles, attending last-minute Emmy events, panel conversations and FYC stunts — all in hopes of one final dash for attention as Emmy voting opens today. But no shows have been more visible, well-funded or obviously neck-and-neck than Widow’s Bay and Hacks, the two clear frontrunners in most comedy series categories. From a Widow’s Bay haunted house party in Culver City to a Hacks live show in Hollywood to the panel conversations at Televerse downtown, I’ve been following this comedy series battle all across Los Angeles for the last week — and watching the awards strategists’ jaws get set tighter and tighter as they talk about the competition.
It usually goes a little something like this: “Sure, I love Widow’s Bay too, but how do you compare one season to landing the plane on a full five seasons?” Or, “We all love Hacks, but the enthusiasm around Widow’s Bay is just unlike anything else we’ve seen.” The best part: Neither is wrong! Part of the fun of this competition is how different the shows are, with distinct but maybe equally powerful campaign narratives — which also meant very different events to show off their strengths this past week.
First out of the gate was Apple’s Widow’s Bay, which pulled off two large-scale events last week. I caught the first one on Wednesday at the Culver Hotel, a 100-year-old landmark that can look spooky under normal circumstances but really showed out that night. There were actors hired to play some of the most memorable characters from the show — the sea hag, Richard Warren and even Patricia in her antler crown — and replicas of props like the Run and Daddy’s Home games. It was truly a Widow’s Bay funhouse, an appropriate nod to creator Katie Dippold’s entire inspiration for the show, and — not for nothing — evidence of just how far an Apple-funded FYC budget can take you. (Thursday’s event was similarly scary, hosted at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.)
I could tell that Emmy-nominated cast members Matthew Rhys, Kate O’Flynn, Dale Dickey and Stephen Root had arrived because everyone immediately crowded around them, but I could never get close enough to see them myself. Still, I’d already seen the effect O’Flynn can have on a room at The Ankler’s Women Shaping Television luncheon earlier that day, and in the official event photos she and the rest of the cast look as stunned and delighted by the event as the fans did.
Widow’s Bay’s huge strength in the Emmy race is the bolt-from-the-blue thrill of its success, a show even the strategists at Apple didn’t expect to become an awards juggernaut but netted 19 Emmy nominations anyway. Fans and voters alike have never had the chance to interact with the cast before — O’Flynn had never even been to L.A. before last week! — so the enthusiasm is naturally heightened, like Beatlemania on a sensible scale. Widow’s Bay will hopefully continue to make many more brilliant seasons of television, but the “I can’t believe they’re really here!” frenzy around the show may never be quite what it is now.
On the other end of the TV life cycle is Hacks, which aired its pitch-perfect finale in May after five seasons on HBO Max and earned 24 Emmy nominations, a record for comedy series. Hacks undeniably went out on top, which is more than many Emmy-beloved comedy series of recent years can say. Leaving out the odd-duck examples of Schitt’s Creek (which had never even been nominated before its final season) and Fleabag (which was only two seasons anyway, not a long-running show), it has been more than 20 years since the final season of a comedy won the top Emmy prize.
So like any seasoned diva, Hacks pulled out one last grand finale last week, bringing Jean Smart in character as Deborah Vance to host an evening at Hollywood’s Fonda Theatre called “Deborah Vance & Friends & Enemies Live!” With nominees Hannah Einbinder, Paul W. Downs and Lauren Weedman also reprising their characters from the show, plus bonus help from real-life stand-up comedians Pat Regan and Naomi Ekperigin, the event had a lovely old-fashioned variety-show feel, with genuine emotion behind the jokes — and then also just really good jokes, such as this Jeffrey Epstein bit.
Still, toward the end of the hourlong show — supposedly cut short because Meg Stalter’s chaotic character Kayla had booked a union-only venue — Smart, in character, remarked on how nice it was to do this one last time, clearly relishing the chance to step into Deborah’s high heels months after the show wrapped production. When I spoke to the Hacks team at HBO’s FYC event on Sunday, they confirmed just how happy they all were to step back into that world one last time. Now they have to hope Emmy voters are too.
Campaign Season
Hacks and Widow’s Bay, of course, are not the only shows doing their final FYC pushes. There were all kinds of promotional stunts to be found around town this last week, from matcha lattes brought to you by Margo’s Got Money Troubles to an 11-foot Traitors statue stationed at various landmarks around town. (My prediction: Between this and the replica Trojan horse used during The Odyssey press tour, giant statue stunts are going to be with us for a while.)
There were fewer stunts on hand at Televerse, the second-annual TV convention held by the Television Academy in downtown Los Angeles, but plenty of star power across the three days of panel conversations. I was thrilled to share the stage on Friday with a lineup of contestants from this past season of The Traitors, who revealed to me that they really are in charge of doing their own hair and makeup each morning, but they’re at least given coffee behind the scenes before they enter the breakfast room. A few hours earlier, the team behind Netflix’s Remarkably Bright Creatures had joined me on the same stage to talk about their Emmy-nominated film, and if you’ve never seen Sally Field charm an audience in person, you’re truly missing out.
But if you don’t mind me being biased for a moment, there were no better vibes this past week than at our luncheon for Women Shaping Television, which you can now finally see for yourself with the full videos of our panel conversations. I know I already told you last week how funny Weedman was, but the video provides more evidence than I ever could. And the way Constance Zimmer talks about how she became invisible on the set of Love Story when wearing the gray wig of her character, Ann Marie Messina, and the lessons it taught her about how women are perceived in the industry — again, only she herself can do it justice!
So, kicking things off, our first panel featured Linda Cardellini (DTF St. Louis), Karolina Wydra (Pluribus) and Hacks’ Weedman, talking about the complex characters they played, the writers who made it all possible, and what stories they’d like to see more of onscreen.
For the second panel, four Emmy nominees joined me to talk about how they prepared for their unforgettable moments onscreen: Shailene Woodley (Paradise), O’Flynn (Widow’s Bay), Tal Anderson (The Pitt) and Zimmer (Love Story).
And finally, our third panel featured actresses who have played characters across multiple seasons, giving us the chance to watch them grow (and maybe discover the things they don’t like about them!). Janelle James (Abbott Elementary) joined that panel alongside The Pitt co-stars Taylor Dearden and Fiona Dourif:
Thanks again to the talent who participated in our inaugural event — it was a blast, and I’m already thinking about how we’ll do it all again next year. But until then, if you’re an Emmy voter — get to it… and good luck picking a comedy series winner!
